Lately I have been working with children who struggle with the monotony of working on speech sounds in therapy. It takes a lot of repetitions to get a speech sound into their system and then many more to move the speech sound out of the therapy room into everyday conversation. Some research suggests 80-100 repetitions are needed per session to be effective (Allen, 2013; Williams, 2003; Williams, 2012). Even when I use playful learning, rewards, and teaching them about the process (it takes time to get there) children still get frustrated with saying words over and over.
I get it.
Speech therapy is hard work.
It takes effort.
But we don’t automatically value effort.
Why does effort matter? Well, it turns out that it is easy to see our intelligence as fixed, something we can’t change. In this case, saying the speech sound exactly right feels to them like a mark of intelligence. Either they can say it the right way or they can’t. The more they are confronted with their failure to say their speech sound exactly right, the more they feel stuck and unable to change. They don’t understand the importance of effort, the work it takes to improve. Research is now showing that intelligence alone isn’t enough. Effort + smarts is what makes the difference. I wanted these children to shift their focus away from thinking, “how many times I got it exactly right” to “I am working hard and that matters.” When a child thinks about themself, “I got it right” they are crediting their own smarts. I wanted them to value the process, the effort it takes to learn to get it right. But effort isn’t always tangible or visible or fun. It was important to give children a way to SEE their effort and have more fun.
Telling them that their efforts mattered helped but it didn’t do enough to shift the dynamic of the therapy session. I decided to focus on effort by using counting sheets where students could mark how many times they tried to say a target word. You can see some examples at Teachers Pay Teachers by Lauren LaCour, Amy Haselden, Speech M, Peachie Speechie, and I have posted one of mine below. The “counting sheets” help the child SEE that they have tried to say the sound 100 times. That’s a lot of good work!
I have been using my “counting sheets” for a few weeks and they have worked better than expected. I have been pairing use of the sheet with time spent teaching them how important their effort is. It isn’t enough to make it more fun, they need to see that all the coloring means something. It means something about who they are and what they can do.
An example of this can be seen when a child says an initial /r/ word with a little bit of a /w/, an incorrect attempt. I can ask them to fix it and they say the word again eagerly. The child is rewarded for trying again because they can color in two bunny tails, instead of just one. Their effort has become visible.
It is fun to watch each child become more engaged, valuing effort over perfection. I don’t praise every response but I do praise their effort. I am helping them learn that working hard matters.
Here is an example of a blank counting sheet.
Here is one that has been filled up.
“Let’s do some more so I can make it to 100!”
If this post has been helpful, please share! I love questions, send me your’s. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read!
References
Allen, M. M. (2013). Intervention efficacy and intensity for children with speech sound disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56(3), 865-877.
Williams, A. L. (2003). Speech disorders resource guide for preschool children. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson-Delmar Learning.
Williams, A. L. (2012). Intensity in phonological intervention: Is there a prescribed amount?. International journal of speech-language pathology, 14(5), 456-461.
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